The concept for this show originated from Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s novella Notes from Underground. It is formulated here under the premise that an illogic understanding can sometimes be more necessary than the logical.
This collaboration between Craig Barker and Theo Simpson can be regarded in terms of a pause within an ongoing performance. This convergence presents a unique production of the works outside of their overall circulation. This momentary suspension temporarily stabilizes the materials, objects and information into patterns of consumption, where a unique conversation briefly takes place before it must be again disassembled into the artists archives.
From the cold materiality of the reinforced steel to the delicacy of a silver gelatin print, the nonsense of mathematical tables to the sleekness of abstracted glossy magazine adverts. These objects, symbols, coded messages and fragments, construct a theoretical framework by way of a common language translated from our familiarity with the materials and the systems the works speculate on.
Artists Statements:
Craig Barker recently studied at the Slade School of Fine Art and now lives and works in Yorkshire. Operating within a highly speculative framework his works often utilize the configuration of the archive to investigate systems of thought, forms of production and the morals of preservation in contemporary culture.
Theo Simpson lives and works in the North of England. His works examine and document British material culture and heritage through the examination of the built environment, vernacular architecture and objects of the everyday.
Simpson’s work has featured most recently in: Palladian Design, exhibition at RIBA (2016), Shooting Space: Architecture in Contemporary Photography (Phaidon 2015) and journals Mas Context and Photoworks. His work is also held in various international public collections including the V&A National Art Library, Fotomuseum, Winterthur, Royal Institute of British Architects and the